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UAE confirms 3,962 new COVID-19 cases, 7 deaths amid UK travel ban

The UAE has ramped up its immunization campaign with the aim of vaccinating more than 50 percent of its roughly 9 million population before the end of March. (File/WAM)
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Updated 30 January 2021
Arab News
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UAE confirms 3,962 new COVID-19 cases, 7 deaths amid UK travel ban

  • UAE says 2,975 have recovered over the past 24 hours
  • Kuwait records 658 cases, Bahrain reports 468 cases
Updated 30 January 2021
Arab News

LONDON: The UAE has been informed of the United Kingdom’s decision to place travel restrictions on flights coming from the country, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
It also said the Emirates “affirms that it will continue to maintain its role as an important travel and logistics hub in accordance with the highest health and safety standards.”
Thousands of people have been left stranded or had their travel plans disrupted after the British government introduced a total ban on flights arriving from the UAE.
Hind Al-Otaiba, director of the Strategic Communication Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said, “the cornerstone of fighting the pandemic is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and the UAE scored the highest per capita test rate in the world.”
She also said: “in light of the new changes taking place in the world, the UAE has intensified its efforts to mitigate these risks.”
Al-Otaiba said the new measures include requiring incoming travelers to submit a negative PCR test, imposing restrictions on places of entertainment and gatherings, and implementing awareness campaigns continuously with high transparency.
“We are confident in our ambitious vaccination program, which ranks second in the world in the total number of vaccine doses distributed in relation to the number of individuals, and we have full confidence in the medical infrastructure and frontline workers.”
She also said that the UAE will extend visit visas, without any additional fees, for British travelers affected by this decision, in light of the current circumstances.
Meanwhile, the UAE on Friday recorded 3,962 new coronavirus cases and seven virus-related deaths.
Officials from the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said the total number of cases since the pandemic began had reached 297,041, while the death toll rose to 826.
It also said that 2,975 people had recovered from the virus over the past 24 hours. The total number of recoveries is 269,999.
MoHaP also said that more than 3 million doses of the vaccine have now been administered as part of the Emirate’s national inoculation campaign, which aims to immunize 50 percent of the population by April.
Health minister Abdul Rahman Al-Owais said the vaccine centers across the country witnessed increasing turnout, adding that the recovery phase is approaching.
Dubai Municipality announced it had intensified its inspection campaigns. It said two businesses were ordered to close, six were fined and warnings were issued to 37 for not complying with precautionary measures.

The authority also said it carried out half a million inspections since March 2020, during which 6,500 establishments were either fined, warned or ordered to close down for not adhering to the coronavirus precautionary measures.
Dubai Tourism also said it closed 23 establishments and fined 238 others during January, for not adhering to the precautionary measures.
Elsewhere, Kuwait reported 658 new cases of COVID-19, raising the total in the country to 164,108. The death toll remained 958 after no additional deaths were reported in the past 24 hours.

In Bahrain the death toll stands at 372 after no new deaths were reported. The number of confirmed cases in the country increased by 468.

 

Topics: UAE COVID-19 Coronavirus Dubai Municipality Dubai Tourism Hind Al-Otaiba Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ministry of Health and Prevention Kuwait Bahrain

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Blinken says Israel needs a clear and concrete plan for Gaza’s future

Updated 5 sec ago
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Blinken says Israel needs a clear and concrete plan for Gaza’s future

Updated 5 sec ago
“We do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation. We also of course, do not support Hamas governance in Gaza...” Blinken said
Israel says it intends to keep overall security control and has baulked at proposals for the Palestinian Authority to take charge

KYIV: Israel needs a clear and concrete plan for the future of Gaza where it faces the potential for a power vacuum that could become filled by chaos, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
Washington and its ally Israel say Hamas cannot continue to run Gaza after militants from the group ignited the conflict with attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7.
“We do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation. We also of course, do not support Hamas governance in Gaza... We’ve seen where that’s led all too many times for the people of Gaza and for Israel. And we also can’t have anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos,” Blinken said during a press conference in Kyiv.
The US top diplomat has held numerous talks with Israel’s Arab neighbors on a post-conflict plan for Gaza since Israel vowed to root out Hamas from the Palestinian enclave more than seven months ago.
But Israel says it intends to keep overall security control and has baulked at proposals for the Palestinian Authority, which governs with partial authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take charge.
“It’s imperative that Israel also do this work and focus on what the future can and must be,” Blinken said. “There needs to be a clear and concrete plan, and we look to Israel to come forward with its ideas.”

Turkiye tells US that Israel’s attack on Rafah unacceptable, Turkish source says

Updated 7 min 7 sec ago
Reuters
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Turkiye tells US that Israel’s attack on Rafah unacceptable, Turkish source says

  • Fidan also told Blinken that it was important to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible
Updated 7 min 7 sec ago
Reuters

ANKARA: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his US counterpart Antony Blinken in a call on Wednesday that Israel’s attack on the Gazan city of Rafah is unacceptable, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
Fidan also told Blinken that it was important to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible, while emphasising that obstacles to the access of humanitarian aid into the enclave must be removed, the source said.

Topics: War on Gaza Turkiye US Israel rafah

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Ireland to recognize Palestinian statehood ‘this month’: FM Martin

Updated 3 min 52 sec ago
AFP
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Ireland to recognize Palestinian statehood ‘this month’: FM Martin

  • FM Micheal Martin: ‘We will be recognizing the state of Palestine before the end of the month’
  • Martin: ‘The specific date is still fluid because we’re still in discussions with some countries in respect of a joint recognition of a Palestinian state’
Updated 3 min 52 sec ago
AFP

DUBLIN: Ireland is certain to recognize Palestinian statehood by the end of May, the country’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said on Wednesday, without specifying a date.
“We will be recognizing the state of Palestine before the end of the month,” Martin, who is also Ireland’s deputy prime minister, told the Newstalk radio station.
In March the leaders of Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Malta said in a joint statement that they stand ready to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Ireland has long said it has no objection in principle to officially recognizing the Palestinian state if it could help the peace process in the Middle East.
But Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza has given the issue new impetus.
Last week, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Spain, Ireland and Slovenia planned to symbolically recognize a Palestinian state on May 21, with others potentially following suit.
But Martin on Wednesday shied away from pinpointing a date.
“The specific date is still fluid because we’re still in discussions with some countries in respect of a joint recognition of a Palestinian state,” he said.
“It will become clear in the next few days as to the specific date but it certainly will be before the end of this month.
“I will look forward to consultations today with some foreign ministers in respect of the final specific detail of this.”
Last month during a visit to Dublin by Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez, Irish prime minister Simon Harris said the countries would coordinate the move together.
“When we move forward, we would like to do so with as many others as possible to lend weight to the decision and to send the strongest message,” said Harris.
Harris’s office said Wednesday that he updated King Abdullah II of Jordan by telephone on Ireland’s plan for statehood recognition.
Harris “outlined Ireland and Spain’s ongoing efforts on Palestinian recognition and ongoing discussions with other like-minded countries,” a statement read.
“The King and the Taoiseach (prime minister) agreed that both Ireland and Jordan should stay in touch in the coming days,” it added.
The conflict in Gaza followed Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages, 128 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 36 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Topics: War on Gaza Ireland Palestine Micheal Martin Simon Harris King Abdullah II

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Hezbollah says struck Israel after field commander’s killing

Updated 32 min 20 sec ago
AFP
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Hezbollah says struck Israel after field commander’s killing

  • Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday attacked “the Meron base with dozens of Katyusha rockets, heavy rockets and artillery shells“
  • The attacks were “part of the response to the assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy in the south” the previous day, it said
Updated 32 min 20 sec ago
AFP

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched dozens of rockets at north Israel military positions Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of a member Israel said was a field commander.
Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire following the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday attacked “the Meron base with dozens of Katyusha rockets, heavy rockets and artillery shells” as well as targeting a barrack with “heavy rockets,” the group said.
The attacks were “part of the response to the assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy in the south” the previous day, it said.
Israel’s army said sirens sounded in Meron on Wednesday without providing further details.
On Tuesday evening, Hezbollah said Israeli fire had killed its member Hussein Makki, who was identified as a field commander by a source close to the group.
The Israeli army later confirmed it had launched the strike that killed Makki.
It described him as “a senior field commander” in Hezbollah responsible for planning and executing “numerous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and territory.”
“He previously served as the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the coastal region,” the army added.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency had reported two people killed in an “enemy drone strike that targeted a car on the Tyre-Al-Hush main road.”
But another source close to Hezbollah later told AFP that while Makki was killed, the other person was injured.
At least 412 people have been killed in Lebanon in more than seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also including 79 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 14 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in areas on both sides of the border.

Topics: War on Gaza Hezbollah Israel Lebanon

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Jordan foils militant attempt to smuggle arms

Updated 35 min 42 sec ago
Arab News
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Jordan foils militant attempt to smuggle arms

  • Investigations are ongoing on the smuggling attempt
Updated 35 min 42 sec ago
Arab News

AMMAN: Jordan foiled an attempt by foreign-backed militants to smuggle arms into its territory, a security official told state news agency PETRA on Wednesday.

Security services seized the arms and detained the smugglers, who were Jordanians, in March.

“Investigations and operations are ongoing,” read the PETRA statement.

Jordan had recently blocked several attempts to smuggle arms including mines, explosives, Kalashnikov rifles, and Katyusha rockets.

Topics: Jordan

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